I wish I'd had the time, energy and commitment to do the same against GEICO a couple years ago when they paid a pittance on a claim that was 100% their insured's fault. The La. Secretary of State's office basically told us there was nothing they could do to force GEICO to pay because no one was injured in the accident, and suggested we take it to small claims court.

When you work full-time though, that's tough. Big companies have an unlimited number of representatives who can be wherever, whenever, and you're just you. In the grand scheme of things, we weighed the money we stood to lose vs. the time and frustration we'd spend trying to claim it, and it wasn't worth it--and that's what they count on.

C'mon! You really think serious prospective students are going to decide to attend LSU because they have a tiger habitat on campus? If they think it's such a draw, maybe they should offer free pizza Fridays.

As far as the live oaks, I never said get rid of THEM, but carrying insurance on them seems wasteful. If one were to be struck by lightning, no amount of money will replace it.

Melt down all the guns on the street, legal and otherwise, and manufacture new ones that 1) require a bare finger to operate, and 2) deliver a very painful sting when the trigger is touched. That way, you gotta really want/NEED to pull that trigger, knowing it's going to hurt you when you do it.

Yeah, unworkable, but I really wish we could.

IMO, these petty thugs want to settle their disputes with gunfire because it's less painful than a good old fashioned fistfight. Never having been paddled in school or spanked at home, they're more afraid of a little pain than killing innocent people. So, either we go back to allowing corporal punishment in schools and at home, or we make guns that deliver instant negative conditioning to the user. Or both. They're not afraid of the law, they're not afraid of the justice system, but if something's going to HURT these precious little snowflakes, "Oooooh, that's abuse! Wah-wah-wah!" they go crying to their mommies and their lawyers.

If we're too stupid to figure out the difference between corrective corporal discipline and child abuse, we deserve the crop of heartless animals we're raising.

Not to get into your personal business, but it seems like if she can do without you several hours per day while you're at work, she could manage for a few hours on New Year's Eve while you sleep through your neighbors' fireworks.

I guess if you judge people by their skin color, all whitish people should accept that guilt and shame you're dishing out--even though you seem to completely disregard the fact that many whitish people, even here in the South, descended from non-slave owners and/or more recent (post-Civil War) immigrants to the US.

Of course, judging people by skin color is what got us into this mess, but feel free to stay on that high horse of yours, since you seem to be enjoying it so much...

You're living in the past. Good ole' Working Joe is little more than a comic figure in our society.

Athletes, actors, criminals and rap "artists" live like kings--why work hard just to get by when you can build up a "persona" and reap monetary rewards? Being a public spectacle may not be ideal, but it sure beats digging ditches.

And lest we start casting stones, they have their Notorious Puff Dog Diggity Doofuses, and we have our "Survivor," "Jersey Shore," "Real Housewives of Skanktown, USA," etc. "celebrities." Lots of great behavior being modeled on those shows, right?

There's BIG money to be made nowadays in acting like a rude, selfish, morally bankrupt jackass. Can we blame young people for emulating them?

Okay, I just have to say this: The poor lady in the photo looks completely lost. The photographer probably just caught her at a bad moment, but darned if she looks like she has a clue what's going on! *LOL* I feel for her. That would absolutely happen to me.

And the buildings all look the same. So what? Don't most apartment complexes have buildings that look the same? Does that automatically make them "prison-like structures"? I've lived in such an apartment complex and it's not ideal, but it was what I could afford. Had I known I was entitled to better, I guess I would've demanded it. How ignorant was I? Oh, I worked in a cubicle too. Can I get retroactive reimbursement for that?

Now, what I'd really like is my own home in English Turn or Old Metairie, with a staff of volunteer servants to wait on me hand and foot and do all my chores and grocery shoppinge. You know, something I can really embrace. The house I'm in now, while it does bear my "personal signature" (as well as a lot of my hair, as my recent bathroom-cleaning efforts have revealed), lacks a $250K art studio which, I understand, is a necessity if you want to be taken seriously as an artist. And there's no stable for the polo ponies.

Until that happens, I'll try to make do but, as you say, lipstick on a pig and all. Without the servants and the polo ponies, can I really call it home?